Thursday, June 24, 2004
Centre Court in the late evening provided the setting for the biggest upset of
this year's Championships, when the third seed and former champion Venus
Williams was dramatically defeated by the 19 year-old Croatian, Karolina Sprem
7-6 (7-5 ), 7-6 (8-6) in one hour 42 minutes of high drama.
In a controversial match, the Chair Umpire made a mistake which ended up with
the score being called wrongly in the tie-break of the second set. With the
score at 2-1 in the tie-break, the umpire incorrectly awarded Sprem a point.
Williams went on to move to four set points at 6-3 but Sprem took the next
five point in a row to take the set and the match.
The AELTC has released a statement on this mistake and it is available on
this website.
Sprem, who had come close to defeating Venus in the Berlin final last month,
showed she is a star in the making by the skilful and determined way she
overcame the woman who won Wimbledon in 2000 and 2001, as well as reaching
the final for the past two years.
Ranked 30th in the world, Sprem was not in the least fazed by the star
quality across the net from her. Venus, elegantly attired, had her game
reduced to tatters eventually by the Croatian's belief that she would prevail
in a match brimming with brilliant tennis, agonising errors and glorious
winners.
Sprem was in the driver's seat almost from the start, breaking for a 3-2 lead
in a match which produced eight breaks of serve. Venus broke back, Sprem
immediately captured the Williams serve again and when the Croatian served
for the set, she was broken once more.
Sprem captured the first set in 53 minutes, winning the tiebreak by seven
points to five on a couple of Venus netted errors, and when she led 3-1 in
the second set the excitement was intense on Centre Court. Venus fought back
from 1-4 down to 3-4, only for Sprem to break again and serve for the match
at 5-3. This brought out the fight of a true champion as Williams, getting
everything back at full stretch, broke back once more to take it into a second
tiebreak.
When Williams moved into a 6-3 lead it seemed odds-on a third set, but she
missed all three set points. Sprem saved the first with a glorious forehand
pass, Venus then double-faulted and another error opened the door for Sprem,
who seized the chance. A Venus shot hit the tape and fell back into her court.
Match point to Sprem. One of them was all she needed as a Williams forehand
sailed over the baseline.
Written by Ron Atkin
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